Thank you for 14 years of giving us reason to do what we do on these pages. Today, however, we do it for the last time.
With this edition we conclude a fabulous episode of Armenia journalism. And we finish with great expectations for how the journalists who produce these pages will continue their influence on local media, as they look for new homes for their work. Find them. Follow their work.

In July, 2002, ArmeniaNow appeared out of nowhere before there was much chance of sustaining an online journal from a country where dial-up was still about as good as cyber connection got and waaaay before “social media” was legitimized.

We began with the intention of filling a gap that we believed existed in society’s transition from a special-interests-influenced, to a more independent-based media environment. While ArmeniaNow (and our parent NGO New Times Journalism Training Center), was surely not the first to offer “western style” journalism training, there was, however, a missing element in getting from the classroom to the newsroom . . .

After meeting with the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan earlier this month, the co-chairs of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Minsk Group announced a meeting of the two countries’ presidents in June. But the specific date and venue of the meeting remain unknown yet.

Czech President Milos Zeman wants his country to follow the example of Germany in officially labeling the Ottoman-era massacres of Armenians as genocide. He said this before paying an official visit to Armenia, Czech media report.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said accusations levied by Turkey against German lawmakers of Turkish origin after its parliament passed a resolution declaring the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces a genocide were incomprehensible.

The first smartphone made in Armenia, called the ArmPhone, went on sale this week. Various Armphone models were unveiled during a kick-off celebration on Monday held as part of a marketing campaign called “It’s Time for Armenian [products].”

Levon Mnatsakanyan, the Nagorno Karabakh Republic Defense Minister and Chief Commander of the Defense Army, said that the statements by former defense chief, Lieutenant-General Samvel Babayan are sabotage against the society in Karabakh and its independence.

Hayk Khanumyan, the head of the opposition National Rebirth faction in the Nagorno Karabakh Republic’s National Assembly and chairman of the party, has been beaten up and was hospitalized in capital Stepanakert.

Residents of the village of Goght in the Kotayk province of Armenia have kept the road to their village closed for a few hours, thus expressing their protest and disagreement with the government program, under which the Gegardalich water reservoir near the village is to be given to several villages after reconstruction.

Parachuting enthusiasts “dove” into a 1,000-ft-deep gorge from an aerial tramway as part of extreme sports activities near the Tatev Monastery, one of Armenia’s top tourist attractions located in the southern Syunik Province.